Page 33 - Zone Magazine Issue 008

While his early years were stamped by hard techno, Torsten Kanzler is nowadays known for trendsetting international techno-sound.
Torsten Kanzler’s live sets are known to lead to controlled excess like no other. Like a chief engineer he takes his crowd into a universe of mind-blowing drum-arrangements, creaking synths and warm growling basslines, using „Maschine“ of Native Instrument and two Allen & Heath Xone K2. His direct interaction combined with a spontaneous set with up to four decks spinning is making Torsten Kanzler an exception – a league of his own.
His gigs in all the high places around the globe like in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Venezuela and Argentina as well as festivals such as Nature One, Rave on Snow or Amsterdam Dance Event stand for powerful and profound techno as well as his numerous productions, headed by his album „Analog Systems“ (2015).
His records are spinning on the desks of artists like Richie Hawtin, Sam Paganini or Adam Beyer. His releases on Naked Lunch or his own imprint TKR are to be found in countless DJ Charts, being supported by the whole scene. His mixsessions and podcasts for CLR always get some international love and show Torsten Kanzler’s high demand and love for the details.
No doubt – Torsten Kanzler stands for techno. Lives techno. Breathes techno.
What did you do before you started your career in DJ'ing?
I grew up in eastern Germany in times of the GDR. I´m a so called „Ossi“ and grew up in a small village of around 300 people in Thüringen. My first contacts to electronic music came through a friend of mine. Before that I only listened to Rock and Punk music. My parents were very musical talented. We often sat together with my father playing guitar and my mother playing akkordeon. I´ve tried to play the accordeon a little bit too but t was too heavy for me as a child so I could hardy hold the instrument. So I lost my connection to it and there came different interests like playing soccer and the girls and so on. It was the time when I was around 12 to 14.
These were my Punk Rock times. I listened to „die Toten Hosen“, „Böse Onkels“ and „die Ärzte“ and stuff like this.
I regret that I´ve ever really learned an instrument. One day I met a friend of mine who I lost my contact to for a while. I knew him from my Punk Rock times. He was into the electronic scene for a while when I met him again, which I didn´t know at this time. After about 2 years we met again and he told me about those partys and invited me to join him . So I went with him and was totally into this electronic music. This was the most impressing arty to me, very cool and family like.
Everything was like „Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen“. Somehow everything fitted together perfectly and so I stayed there. Then everything went on very fast. I met the guys who made this party.
This was the tie when I was already in the west. In eastern Germany there were no Techno Partys like this one at the time.
You still have a good relationship with your parents?
Yes of course. Family stays but the former friends are gone.
So these were the beginnings of electronic music. You meet new people and you think:“ what this guy does there in the booth I can do better... I really need some turntables at home. „ and so I bought some really old Reloop Turntables with belt drive from a friend. I have played a lot at home and on afterhour partys. I ´ve played 10 hour sets at home mixing one track into the other and then somehow the first club gig came. A friend of mine invited me to play at one of his partys.
At this time the scene wasn´t this compact like it is today. It was a time when everything was on a different basis. This guy knows that one and then you play on his party and he plays on yours just for fun. The partys were made just
for fun. Today it´s all about making money. Everyone is booking the acts that will fills the club and that keeps him alive. Those were different times. There wasn´t this much.
The people were happy that there even was something, the events were well filled and it was all about the fun factor, the unity and the music. Today it isn´t like this any more.
So you have made it from deep down to the top.
I have. It was a matter of hard work and a little luck. Meeting the right people at the right time. Only meeting the right people isn´t enough and only having talent isn´t either. You have to ave both, a little luck, a lot of ambition, a lot of power of endurance. The whole scene is unbelievably hard, maybe music business ins incredible hard nowadays no matter whiich genre you take.
This is not only part of DJ business. It´s the same in Pop business and the rock scene and with every artist. There are many people who want to come out as the big stars and make a lot of money. It all costs a lot of time, patience and ambition.
What would you do without music?
I am very skilled to manual work maybe caused by living in the east. I never thought about beeing a DJ and making money with it. Like everybody you go to partys because it´s fun, the ones who want to be djs always claim:“ I´m doing it just for fun at home because i like it...“ and then it developes and you think, at home djing is not the end of the road and it continues. Then you have to make a decision between a 9to5 job or being a DJ.
For a long time I did both. I was on a construction Job in Cologne/Bonn for 2 years doing Window montage. I was on the job from sunday evening to friday every week and then went to partys friday evening playing my gigs until sunday and then back to work. This was a very intensive time. The good thing at the construction job was that the work started at 6am to 5pm and then went to bed early. So that's how I survived my weekends. Otherwise this wouldn´t have been possible. Some day I had to make a decision. When you want to be professional you have to produce. It´s not the point that jus must produce but to develop yourself you simply want to do more than just djing. So when I see other artists releasing their stuff on vinyl I want to release on vinyl as well. To do this you need more time and you have to decide between normal job and music business. I went to the music side. The next 2 or 3 years were very hard.
Some people feel good with that split of work and music, some even don´t recognize that it can go any further. It only depends on what you want.
I often think of those times. You put yourself into it, you invest a lot, you accept defeats. It´s a hard competition to make it to the top.
With what kind of hard and software do you use to produce?
Many newcomers today make their productions with a laptop. It´s easy today. With about 200-500€ you can get a really good software to produce like Ableton or Reason. In the former days you only had hardware. Even today hardware is expensive. Because of this software you have a lot of newcomers on the market. There are not many people who can afford a hardware sequencer or synth. The software DAWs like Ableton, Reason, Fruity Loops r Logic make it possible together with those platforms where you can get a lot of samplepacks and vst for cheap. I think for 90% of hardware there are software equivalents.
Hardware manufacturers know that there is a need for it. So now you can easily spread your music to the market and everyone has the possibility to do so.
So you use both?
I use both. For a long time I only used software but I never used those sample CDs. I never liked samples. I always started my tracks from zero. I´m not a person that has the
finished track in mind when starting to make it. I go to the studio, get my bassdrum, screw a little bit with the other elements and when it hits me I get into the track. It´s just intuitive.
To get to the point, nowadays I use more hardware than software. Hardware just sounds better. You can hear the difference. It´s the same with the club mixers. You can hear a difference between the digital Pioneer and the analog A+H. But when you got an oversized soundsystem in a club the mixer gets more and more nonrelevant. The worst thing then are the limiters... Limiters are always scrap. It would be much better to have a technician in the club who controlls the soundsystem. Limiters always cut the sound but they do it always in the same indifferent way.
Sometimes you have a microphone hanging above the dancefloor and when you play a part without bassdrum and with some loud high hats and people start to scream, the limiter reacts to the screaming. When the break is over and the beat strikes in the limter is overstrained.
For me a soundsystem doesn´t need to be extremly loud. The sound has to be clear and I want to ear every single detail in the track. The Bass has to have enough pressure so I can feel it. When the whole soud is well weighted and you can feel the bass it´s good. You don´t always have it this way, often the soundsystem is only screaming at you.
What equipment do you use for DJ'ing?
I started with vinyl only. Then one day with the beginnings of Traktor I used the scratch system but there were some problems often with the pickups or scratched timecode vinyls or other technical issues. So I came to use a Controller.
Then the S4 came out from Native Instruments which I used for about 1 1⁄2 years. But because of the limited possibilities and the sound of it didn´t satisfy me I wanted to go on to the next step.
I then oriented on the stuff of Chris Liebing who always had a better sound which results in the hardware he used. He was always kind of an idol for me so I worked into this direction.
Then I got a deal with A+H. I now play with the K2 Controllers and the Xone 92. I´ve had the DB4 for a while. At the moment I use the Xone 92 because I need more channels whiich the DB4 doesn´t have. Into this setup I connect the Machine from NI and an external analog FX unit. I do not use the machine to play whole tracks. I always play with 4 decks in traktor by taking one part from one track as loop mixing it with parts of other tracks that I extract from there. This is like a live remixing, not really a liveact but live Remix.
How many of your own tracks do you use in a DJ set?
I think it´s about 50/50. I play a lot of my own stuff and from my own label. Not only the ones that are produced by myself but from the TKR label.
What were your highlights of 2015?
A highlight in every year is always Nature one where we have an own flor from our agency. It ´s always nice to meet the people in person with who you normally work with. It´s alays funny.
Another highlight is my new Album which came out in march which is the first that is only produced analog.
What is up for 2016?
There will be some productions for sure. One will be on silent storm, a London label wich wil include an Emerson Remix. Another one will be on driving forces, an austrian Label. A lot more will come.
Connect:
http://www.torstenkanzler.de
http://www.tk-records.de
Words By Andreas Dueffel
Pic By Torsten Kanzler
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